Complete Works, Volume IV. Harold Pinter

From a friend.

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      Yes, it leapt with joy. Because you see I knew she never did things loosely or carelessly, recklessly. Some people throw a stone into a river to see if the water’s too cold for jumping, others, a few others, will always wait for the ripples before they will jump.

      DEELEY Some people do what? (To Kate.) What did she say?

      ANNA And I knew that Katey would always wait not just for the first emergence of ripple but for the ripples to pervade and pervade the surface, for of course as you know ripples on the surface indicate a shimmering in depth down through every particle of water down to the river bed, but even when she felt that happen, when she was assured it was happening, she still might not jump. But in this case she did jump and I knew therefore she had fallen in love truly and was glad. And I deduced it must also have happened to you.

      DEELEY You mean the ripples?

      ANNA If you like.

      DEELEY Do men ripple too?

      ANNA Some, I would say.

      DEELEY I see.

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      ANNA And later when I found out the kind of man you were I was doubly delighted because I knew Katey had always been interested in the arts.

      KATE I was interested once in the arts, but I can’t remember now which ones they were.

      ANNA Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten our days at the Tate? and how we explored London and all the old churches and all the old buildings, I mean those that were left from the bombing, in the City and south of the river in Lambeth and Greenwich? Oh my goodness. Oh yes. And the Sunday papers! I could never get her away from the review pages. She ravished them, and then insisted we visit that gallery, or this theatre, or that chamber concert, but of course there was so much, so much to see and to hear, in lovely London then, that sometimes we missed things, or had no more money, and so missed some things. For example, I remember one Sunday she said to me, looking up from the paper, come quick, quick, come with me quickly, and we seized our handbags and went, on a bus, to some totally obscure, some totally unfamiliar district and, almost alone, saw a wonderful film called Odd Man Out.

      Silence

      DEELEY Yes, I do quite a bit of travelling in my job.

      ANNA Do you enjoy it?

      DEELEY Enormously. Enormously.

      ANNA Do you go far?

      DEELEY I travel the globe in my job.

      ANNA And poor Katey when you’re away? What does she do?

      Anna looks at Kate.

      KATE Oh, I continue.

      ANNA Is he away for long periods?

      KATE I think, sometimes. Are you?

      ANNA You leave your wife for such long periods? How can you?

      DEELEY I have to do a lot of travelling in my job.

      ANNA (To Kate.) I think I must come and keep you company when he’s away.

      DEELEY Won’t your husband miss you?

      ANNA Of course. But he would understand.

      DEELEY Does he understand now?

      ANNA Of course.

      DEELEY We had a vegetarian dish prepared for him.

      ANNA He’s not a vegetarian. In fact he’s something of a gourmet. We live in a rather fine villa and have done so for many years. It’s very high up, on the cliffs.

      DEELEY You eat well up there, eh?

      ANNA I would say so, yes.

      DEELEY Yes, I know Sicily slightly. Just slightly. Taormina. Do you live in Taormina?

      ANNA Just outside.

      DEELEY Just outside, yes. Very high up. Yes, I’ve probably caught a glimpse of your villa.

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      My work took me to Sicily. My work concerns itself with life all over, you see, in every part of the globe. With people all over the globe. I use the word globe because the word world possesses emotional political sociological and psychological pretensions and resonances which I prefer as a matter of choice to do without, or shall I say to steer clear of, or if you like to reject. How’s the yacht?

      ANNA Oh, very well.

      DEELEY Captain steer a straight course?

      ANNA As straight as we wish, when we wish it.

      DEELEY Don’t you find England damp, returning?

      ANNA Rather beguilingly so.

      DEELEY Rather beguilingly so? (To himself.) What the hell does she mean by that?

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      Well, any time your husband finds himself in this direction my little wife will be only too glad to put the old pot on the old gas stove and dish him up something luscious if not voluptuous. No trouble.

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      I suppose his business interests kept him from making the trip. What’s his name? Gian Carlo or Per Paulo?

      KATE (To Anna.) Do you have marble floors?

      ANNA Yes.

      KATE Do you walk in bare feet on them?

      ANNA Yes. But I wear sandals on the terrace, because it can be rather severe on the soles.

      KATE The sun, you mean? The heat.

      ANNA Yes.

      DEELEY I had a great crew in Sicily. A marvellous cameraman. Irving Shultz. Best in the business. We took a pretty austere look at the women in black. The little old women in black. I wrote the film and directed it. My name is Orson Welles.

      KATE (To Anna.) Do you drink orange juice on your terrace in the morning, and bullshots at sunset, and look down at the sea?

      ANNA Sometimes, yes.

      DEELEY As a matter of fact I am at the top of my profession, as a matter of fact, and I have indeed been associated with substantial numbers of articulate and sensitive people, mainly prostitutes of all kinds.

      KATE (To Anna.) And do you like the Sicilian people?

      DEELEY I’ve been there. There’s nothing more to see, there’s nothing more to investigate, nothing. There’s nothing more in Sicily to investigate.

      KATE (To Anna.) Do you like the Sicilian people?

      Anna stares at her.

      Silence

      ANNA (Quietly.) Don’t let’s go out tonight, don’t let’s go anywhere tonight, let’s stay in. I’ll cook something, you can wash your hair, you can relax, we’ll put on some records.

      KATE Oh, I don’t know. We could go out

      ANNA Why do you want to go out?

      KATE We could walk across the park.

      ANNA The park is dirty at night, all sorts of horrible people, men hiding behind trees and women with terrible voices, they scream at you as you go past, and people come out suddenly from behind trees and bushes and there are shadows everywhere and there are policemen, and you’ll have a horrible walk, and you’ll see all the traffic and the noise of the traffic and you’ll see all the hotels, and you know you hate looking through all those swing doors, you hate it, to see all that, all those people in the lights in the lobbies all talking and moving and all the chandeliers . . .

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      You’ll only want to come home if you go out. You’ll want to run home . . . and into your room . . .

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      KATE What shall we do then?

      ANNA Stay in. Shall I read